Tax and benefit system

Since its foundation in the 1960s, the IFS has studied the design of the UK's tax and benefit system, and the effects it has on individuals and companies. This continues to be a core part of the Institute's work. We monitor and analyse policy developments and proposals on an ongoing basis and use this work to make important contributions to public debates. Each year in the run up to the Budget we publish our own Green Budget, which addresses the challenges facing the Chancellor, and we publish analysis of policy changes immediately following the Budget and fiscal statements. More recently we have also began supporting the analysis of tax policy in developing countries, including via our TaxDev initiative.

To ensure that our analysis is relevant and impactful, we constantly maintain and improve the Institute's tax and benefit model. We use this, in conjunction with large cross-sectional household datasets, to model the impact of reforms on individuals' incomes and behaviour. As a public resource, we maintain surveys of the tax and benefit system and provide data on rates and allowances.

The decades of research on taxes and benefits, along with the expertise of the large network of IFS researchers and fellows, was bought together for the Mirrlees Review. This project identified the characteristics of a good tax system for any open developed economy, assessed the extent to which the UK tax system conforms to these ideals, and recommended how it might realistically be reformed in that direction. The review produced a set of chapters dealing with specific aspects of the tax system and a final volume that set out the conclusions for how to design the system as a whole.

Tax and Benefits

IFS Green Budget 2017, in association with ICAEW and with funding from the Nuffield Foundation. The report looks at the issues and challenges facing Chancellor Philip Hammond as he prepares for his Budget in March.

Dimensions of Tax Design volume one of the Mirrlees Review, is a collection of papers from high profile researchers analysing the different aspects and characteristics of the tax system. This expert evidence informs the conclusions of the review in Tax by Design, which recommends how the tax system ...